Moving to Seattle

Not surprisingly, the last several weeks have been very busy. Melissa went to a conference in Sweden (which went really well and was very motivating), and I (Luc) moved to Seattle on November 1st. It took a few days, but I did find a wonderful apartment just north of Capitol Hill, quite close to the University. Unfortunately, there is some delays in the paperwork for my job, but overall the move was pretty painless and I love Seattle. It's a great city and I'm sure Melissa and I will be very happy here.

Parallel to all of that, we are of course still thinking about and trying to work out the wedding details. Don't worry, we will send details about travel arrangements as soon as we can. I am actually going to Georgia tomorrow, and we will spend a week (and Thanksgiving!) together. We are both very much looking forward to that!

Also, today, it has been exactly one year since Melissa moved to Georgia. Wow, our lives have been pretty hectic!

Engagement party pictures

Here are a few pictures from the party in Quebec City. We had a fabulous time, and everyone seems to have really enjoyed it.

Thank you for a fabulous party!

We had a great engagement party. It was exactly what we hoped for- lots of family and friends, good food and wine, and even beautiful weather. My parents were thrilled to meet Luc's family and were so touched by the warm and loving welcome to the family, as am I. I couldn't be happier than to be part of such a wonderful group of people. I look forward to our many celebrations in the future.

After the party, we drove 3500 miles back to Georgia. It was a long road but we managed to have some fun along the way too- stopping at Niagra Falls and a bourbon distillery (Kentucky!) on the way home. Since we returned to GA I have had a nasty cold that has delayed our postings till now. Hopefully we will have a picture album from the party soon. So if you happen to read this and have some pictures- please send them our way.

Thank you! Merci beaucoup!

Moving Day! Surprise...

In an unexpected turn of events, Melissa just moved to a new place. Sadly not in Seattle- still in Athens!! But what a world of difference. I made the decision on Sunday to move, found a place on Monday, moved in on Tuesday. Some may say I am impulsive, but this was actually somewhat overdue. I no longer live in a cave where even my plants couldn't survive. The new place is bright with light and now I can sleep at night- which makes a huge difference in my life!

Luc returns from the Arctic on Friday. His travelog was really fun to follow. Not too much about Luc's science, but still cool to see what kind of research is going on in the Arctic.

Just 26 days until our Engagement party. I am excited that our parents will be able to get to meet and know each other better. Plus Quebec is beautiful in the Fall. I hope that some of the trees are starting to change colors by then!

Luc is off to the Arctic!

We spent a wonderful day in Atlanta on Tuesday- celebrating my birthday and soaking every minute up in preparation for the LONG month of August. Not only the HOTest month in Georgia but also the Loneliest month. Sigh.

Anyone that wants to follow Luc's Arctic journey can check here for daily blogs.
http://www.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/dispatch2007/index2007.html

We tried our best to get a date picked for our wedding before he left- so that we can send out Save the Date cards- but that didn't quite happen. We did find out that the woman that runs one of the hotels (10 rooms) has been on vacation. So maybe she isn't giving us the cold shoulder? But pretty soon, we might just have to make our decision without considering them. We have a date availbale in April at one of the BIG hotels (20 rooms). We were just hoping for January. How fun would it be for our friends and family packed in the snow to have a sunny, beautiful week on the beach in January??

Anyhow, I doubt we will know until September. So I guess I will have to try to relax until then!

Get Ready, Get Set

Isla Holbox has us rather excited. Although we have been having some trouble getting our communication underway with the island. We have one firm response from a 20-bungalow hotel on the beach with a pool. It should be a great spot. The only REAL hitch is that we would like to get married earlier than April! But that might have to be it for us since we are having trouble getting firm dates and quotes from anyone else. So now we are wondering if we should just book the whole resort for 4 days? But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

We really wanted to have this problem solved by the time Luc left for the Arctic- so we could let people know the date. But I am not sure that will happen. We also wanted to visit before making our final decision, but the last minute tickets we looked at for July were pretty pricy and our next chance will be October! Not out of the question....

At least the engagement party is coming along. We only have one item on our list left to do before Luc leaves. And it isn't that urgent. It could be resolved in September. We are looking forward to celebrating with everyone then. It should be lots of fun to share Quebec with my family (my sister is coming too!!) and meet Luc's extended family.

Wow! Did we find it?

On our quest to find a good balance between adventure and comfort, we stumbled upon this really cool spot- Isla Holbox. It is about the same distance from Cancun as Playa del Carmen with one major exception- there is not a huge highway to get there. So if you choose to take the more adventurous path to get there it takes ~3.5 hours by bus (don't worry it has A/C) through lots of small towns followed by a ferry ride. Or you can charter a small plane from Cancun to the island for $500 (up to 4 people). The island itself is beautiful, remote, and somewhat rustic. Most of the accommodations have ecological ideals to limit their impact. There are no large resorts. It seems perfect. All of the places have packages to include all meals or just breakfast- so you can choose.

The Mexico Dilemma

Although most of our planning energy is still directed at planning the Engagement party, occasionally our thoughts wonder to the wedding. We are still largely undecided about how we will proceed with this and thought it might be a good time to share our dilemma with you. Perhaps someone out there has some insight into our problem. Generally when Luc and I travel, we want to get a real sense of the place we are visiting- an idea of what it the city is all about. We like to eat in local restaurants and travel off the tourist path. Not to say that we don't indulge in the "trip to the top of the Eiffel tower" but that we don't like resorts. We are not looking to recreate the comfortable life we have at home in another place. Now we are planning a party in Mexico. If we were traveling to Mexico we would likely stay in many different places rather than a week in a single location. Variety is the spice of life! But we know that this is not practical for a group-nor would it be enjoyable.

So, we are looking at our options. And there are a ton of all-inclusive resorts in Mexico that would make traveling very easy for those that never have. But there resorts are BIG- I mean massive. It would be possible for the entire wedding party to stay in the resort and never see eachother if we didn't have a time and place for the actual ceremony. We are not entirely certain that this would make us happy. Another really cool option is this little boutique hotel- that is occupied only by the wedding party. It looks fabulous, but could be a bit on the expensive side. So we are trying to determine how to make everyone happy. Never an easy job!

And we have even been considering something closer to what we normally do when we travel, but would be much harder to organize. Mexico is a country of extremes- and there are some really big houses there to rent. We were thinking of renting one of these larger villas for the wedding. It would be peaceful, quiet, but would be more work for everyone. The fun kinda work- like cooking meals together and making margaritas. But it would also mean that everyone wouldn't be able to stay at the same location, but we would have a fun party central.

Obviously the easiest for everyone would be an all-inclusive resort, drinks and meals included in the price of the hotel. Many of the ones in Mexico are 600+ rooms. And the ones that I have found that are SMALL resorts are about 200 rooms. A couple of cute ones, but the biggest complaint is certainly the quality of the food since there are fewer restaurants to choose from (sometimes only one!).

Drop us a line if you have any suggestions for us. I am sure that others are less put-off by these resorts than we are. They are certainly convenient in that everything is provided for you- hungry? there are 3-4 options. thirsty? get a drink. Some (most...) even have child care programs-like a mini-camp for the kids. Or pools with water slides and whatnot....

Party planning in progress....

Luc just left after our longest visit yet- 10 days. It was great. We sweated out the Georgia nights and finally found a use for all this heat. Dosas! When we traveled in Southern India we ate Masala Dosas nearly every day. They are so good. We bought an excellent cookbook for Southern Indian cuisine when we returned. In Cape Cod, we never tried to make dosas since it was just not HOT enough. The batter is made of fermented rice and lentils. It has to “rise” for 16 hours in 90 degree heat. They were perfect!

If you never saw our pictures from India, check this page.

And back to the wedding plans. We made a lot of progress on planning our engagement party. After careful calculations on the capacity of Bertrand’s deck, we are fairly certain it can withstand the weight of party! We are hoping to send invitations by the end of the week. Since we need to have some idea of how many people will attend before Luc leaves for his next cruise. He is returning to the Arctic for the month of August. If you didn’t see his pictures from the first trip- take a peek here-

Plans: An Engagement Party!

Luc proposed to me on Christmas Eve 2006 in a wonderfully sweet and typically spontaneous Luc fashion (Alhough he DID have a ring!). And we have been so wrapped up in determining our future together-primarily Luc's job prospects- that we have not had much time and energy left over to contemplate planning our wedding. The good news is that Luc has accepted the job at Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington in Seattle. He will be moving there sometime in November.

Now- we can plan a party! And the first thing we want is for our parents to meet and get to know each other. We think they should hit it off pretty well. John and Carolyn (Melissa's parents) have already met Kathleen and Bertrand (Luc's father), but they have not met Michel and Lucille (Luc's mom). So, we are planning on having an engagement party in Quebec. It should also be a wonderful opportunity for the Rainville's and Grenon's to reunite.

We are planning the party for September 22, 2007. Details below! (keep reading, or click here).

We expect that the wedding will be sometime in Winter 2008.

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Melissa et moi nous sommes fiançés à la veille de Noël 2006. Après un bon repas romantique (et cinq ans!), je ne pouvais plus attendre et j'ai demandé Melissa en mariage (j'avais déjà la bague). Nous avons été très occupés depuis, vivant à plus de 1700 km l'un de l'autre. À travers la quête d'emploi pour moi et nos projets scientifiques respectifs, nous n'avons pas eu beaucoup de temps pour planifier notre mariage! Dans les dernières semaines, j'ai finalement accepté un emploi permanent d'océanographe au Applied Physics Laboratory à l'Université du Washington, à Seattle. Je déménagerai sur la côte ouest probablement en Novembre.

On se tourne maintenant vers les célébrations! La première chose qui est très importante pour nous est que nos parents se rencontrent... Sans doute qu'ils comprendront très bien dès qu'ils se verront pourquoi Melissa et moi sommes si heureux ensemble! John et Carolyn (les parents de Melissa) ont déja rencontré Kathleen et Bertrand (le père de Luc), mais ils n'ont jamais eu l'occasion de rencontrer Michel et Lucille (la mère de Luc). Nous avons donc pensé célébrer nos fiançailles au Québec. Ce sera une belle occasion pour les parents de Melissa de voir le coin de pays où Luc a grandi, et pour tous les membres des (grandes) familles Rainville et Grenon de se revoir.

Cette célébration aura lieu le 22 septembre 2007, à Québec. Les détails suivent plus bas! (continuez a lire, ou cliquez ici).

Le mariage sera probablement en hiver 2008.

Sites and travels

As mentioned above, we are thinking of getting married next winter.

If you have been keeping track, you will notice that at that time Melissa will be in Georgia, Luc in Washington State, and our respective families in the other two corners of North America. So no matter where it is, people will have to travel (far) to the wedding. Of course, we could draw a big "X" between all the above locations and get married in the middle, but we're not very excited by the state line between Wyoming and Nebraska. Given our history, it appears to us that Mexico might be the place that makes the most sense for us to get married.

Because of the distance, we certainly do not expect that all our friends (also scattered around the world) will travel to our wedding (see current proposed locations below) - although it would be fun! So far our plan for the engagement party will be an informal party in Quebec based on the classic wine and cheese party. Since Melissa's family is from the wine producing region of California, and Luc's family has a tradition of wine and cheese parties- it seems like the perfect fit. Our current plan is an informal party where either wine or cheese is brought to the party instead of gifts. The real gift is enjoying the wine and cheese with our friends and family.

We are still discussing the logistics of these parties, which is further complicated by the distance between the two of us. We will send some sort of invitation out later when we have a better idea of where and how we will do our party. If you are interested in coming, it would be really helpful for planning purposes (ours and yours!) to get an idea of who is thinking of coming to the wedding and/or the engagement party. Don't worry, we KNOW that life is complicated and that it's hard to know for sure what will happen in 6 month or a year. Feel free to contact either of us and explain how commitment is difficult... we'll understand. ;-)



Quelques précisions à propos du mariage et de la célébration de nos fiançailles...

Si vous avez porté attention, vous remarquerez que l'hiver prochain Melissa sera toujours en Géorgie, Luc dans l'état du Washington, et nos familles respectives dans les deux autres coins de l'Amérique du Nord. Peu importe où nous nous marierons, ce sera certainement un long voyage pour pratiquement tout le monde... Une possibilité serait de tracer un gros "X" reliant Athens, Seattle, le nord de la Californie et le Québec, et choisir l'intersection. Malheureusement nous ne sommes pas très chauds à l'idée d'un mariage à la frontière du Wyoming et du Nebraska! Compte tenu de notre histoire, un mariage au Mexique nous semble être la meilleure possibilité.

À cause de la distance, nous ne nous attendons pas à ce que tous nos amis (eux-aussi éparpillés autour du monde) viennent au mariage (voir la liste courante des sites possibles au bas de cette page) - même si ce serait vraiment super!!! Pour le moment, nous pensons célébrer nos fiançailles à Québec. Nous planifions un vins et fromages, une façon parfaite de lier les traditions de la famille de Melissa (qui vient d'une région de production de vins) et celle de Luc (qui aime beaucoup le vin et le fromage). Nous ne souhaitons pas reçevoir de cadeaux. Le vrai cadeau sera de célébrer avec nos familles et amis.

Nous sommes toujours en train de discuter des détails, discussion évidemment compliquée par la distance. Nous enverrons une invitation bientôt quand nous aurons une meilleure idée de l'endroit (probablement chez Bertrand et Kathleen, à Québec) et des détails de l'organisation de cette fête. Si vous êtes intéressés à venir, il serait pratique pour une meilleure planification (la vôtre et la nôtre!) de savoir qui pense à venir au mariage et/ou à la célébration de nos fiançailles. Ne vous n'inquiétez pas, nous savons très bien que la vie est compliquée et qu'il est difficile de savoir ce qui arrivera dans six mois ou un an. Sentez-vous bien à l'aise de nous contacter et de nous expliquer à quel point il est difficile de s'engager... Nous comprendrons!!! ;-)